But a Child's Game (NewRedShipping (Brendan x Serena) Story)
by Endearing-Soliloquy
Summary: "My dear, You put on for me a show and I, in turn, shall give you mine. In the middle of where a desert howls, down to deepest parts of a underwater trench, and up to where Rayquaza itself might have rest. All are places in which one of the three missing people might stay. Which one do I have- where do they lay? Daughter of the famed investigator, Let us play but a child's game."


_"My dear. You put on for me a show- disguise your bluff beneath a blanket of lies- and I, in turn, shall give you mine- I will pluck the threads of your deceitful web one by one. In the middle of where a desert howls, down to deepest parts of a underwater trench, and up to where Rayquaza itself might have rest. All are places in which one of the three missing people might stay, but which one is it? Only one has been taken by myself, the other two are of no concern to me. Which one do I have? And where do they lay?_

_Dear daughter of the famed investigator, let us play but a child's game,"  
_

A child's game. One with a simple board but complex rules to follow, yet by far one of the hardest game to truly play down to perfection- to manipulate to your liking- if one could not understand such things down to the word. That was what this was- not a tedious game of 'Guess Who' where the answer would be obvious in a few turns, nor was it anything like 'Snakes and Ladders' where the player was offered, on occasion, the chance to move up further than five rolls could take. If one had to compare this 'child's game' this man had so freely set down for the girl, it would have to be chess, for it was complex yet simple; easy to learn, hard to master, especially when given a time limit much like he had.  
Two weeks. Fourteen days and counting- that was how long in which Serena had to find herself not one, not two, but three missing people of all equal importance. Well, she had fourteen days, however she was now halfway through the first week, and she had only just found something most peculiar in this raging desert she now found herself in.

Grey eyes dusted over with he smallest hints of blue stared at the slightly blurred out object that laid but a short distance away, her surroundings tinted amber from the lenses of the goggles in which the girl had so smartly remembered to place over her eyes. This sandstorm, why it had lasted for what she could only assume to be before she had gotten here and, on the flip side, Serena could safely guess that it was not going to let up soon.  
A steps slow and held back by the weather that caused for sand to be flung around in violent and harsh waves, causing for skin to redden and sting from the tiny grains that lashed against her exposed skin, Serena brought her way over to whatever laid on the ground, partially covered in accumulated sand. Whatever was there- be it a pokémon, a person, or just a mere rock-, it had so clearly been there for quite a fair amount of time- a day, a few hours, or perhaps even a week or so. In thinking so, the former champion allowed for her gaze to flicker around so very quickly in a blind attempt to scan the area, before she held but a single hand up to her face, covering her features from the raging sandstorm whilst the other gripped three rather small photos in it ever so slightly; the portraits themselves being moved around according to the changing winds.  
She had lost the boy- who's name she knew not- that had been assigned to guide her through this desert, to assist her in the search for these three missing champions so efficiently that they would have time to spare on their journey, so Serena was by this stage so very lost in this area that, really, had a simple layout if one cut away these ridiculous sandstorms. The girl had so stupidly continued her search despite having lost that extra help, and, Arceus, was she paying; lost in the middle of this kind of weather, little resources that would last her but a day or so, approaching a person that laid face-up in the sa-

A person?

At this, Serena quickened her strides and brought herself over to the figure that laid there in the sand, and it was, indeed, a person in which she had caught in that amber-plagued sight of hers. Obviously male and rather tall, this person's skin was tinted a painfully red colour from having been hit by the sandstorm much like herself; grains of sand had nestled themselves into the locks of them and their clothes were yellowed from the dust particles of the sand that had attached to their clothes in an unfortunate kind of manner. The girl thanked whatever she believed in that this male had landed on their back, for if it had been the other way, the she would only have to assume that they had suffocated from the growing levels of sand. Ah, but the level of that little kind of material had risen rather noticeably from the time in which this person had laid there, for it crept up to grace he base of their neck. Despite this, however, the honey blonde could not simply leave this person here, no; regardless of who this happened to be- one of the missing champions or just a stupid traveller like herself-, Serena was going to at least get them out of this weather before him, or herself, were to rot away.  
The hand that clutched onto the three photos in her hand ranged from a man with turquoise hair adorned in white clothing, the other another male but with silver hair alongside a rather angled face, and the last but a boy with black hair adorned in a strange-looking hat. These were the three she was looking for in no particular order; Wallace, Steven, and Brendan- or was it 'Brenden'?- respectively. Pulling the photographs down in order to get a view at them so that way she could, perhaps, identify this person passed out on the floor, Serena allowed for her gaze to flick from the first and then down to the male, then the second, and then the third.  
Was it one of them?  
The honey blonde could not tell, so she knelt down beside the person whom she could tell would be taller than herself and brushed back the sand in which covered their hair so. Yes, this took quite some time to do, for the sand was easily replaced and moved back the instant she would take her hand away, however the girl managed to do so over a series of minutes; combing the sand out of their locks in an attempt to try and see what colour in which their hair was- to mark out any distinctive features.  
Now uncovered, the honey blonde brought the photos down beside the male's face, once more examining and comparing the three photos to this unconscious being; wanting to so desperately see if this happened to be someone of importance or not so that way she could continue her search without wasting anymore time. The features on this person's face- the structure of certain aspects-, their hair colour, and overall presentation...why, the girl had no doubt;  
Serena had finally found one of them. This male was one of the champions in which she had been searching for.

Ah, but what was this all about? Why was she searching for these people with such great importance? What had happened? Why had the Sinnoh-born hero of Kalos brought herself to Hoenn?  
Why, that was something that had its answer laying ever so sneakily back all the way to when she had first been assigned such a task...


End file.
